


planting seeds of love.

by 4ureyesonly28



Category: One Direction (Band)
Genre: Album: Fine Line (Harry Styles), Domestic Fluff, Falling In Love, Fluff, Kid Fic, M/M, Song: Sunflower Vol. 6 (Harry Styles), it might give you cavities, love throughout the ages, no really! make sure to line up a dental appointment before you read this, sappier than your average forest
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-17
Updated: 2020-09-17
Packaged: 2021-03-08 02:01:09
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,927
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26517868
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/4ureyesonly28/pseuds/4ureyesonly28
Summary: When little Harry first sees the boy dressed in all green, with mismatched blue and red socks and the huge crown of yellow petals around his head, he doesn't know that he's just laid eyes upon the love of his life.
Relationships: Harry Styles/Louis Tomlinson
Comments: 24
Kudos: 137
Collections: Fine Line Fic Fest





	planting seeds of love.

**Author's Note:**

> This fic was written for the [Fine Line Fic Fest](https://finelineficfest.tumblr.com//). Make sure you check out all the other great fics in the collection which can be found [here](https://archiveofourown.org/collections/FineLineFicFest//)! 
> 
> Huge thanks to my friends for looking over this and helping me as always! [Lynda](https://wait4ever.tumblr.com/) and [Roni](https://reminiscingintherain.tumblr.com/) you two are angels!! xx

Harry was clinging to his mum’s leg as the tall lady led them out of her office. Mum reached down to pat his head in what he knew was supposed to be a comforting gesture, but when he looked up at her face, he saw that she wasn’t a huge fan of the lady either. 

“Can’t I stay with you, mummy? I promise I’ll be good,” he whispered as they walked along the corridor with the colourful walls that they had been in before. 

“Honey, I wish you could,” mum answered. “I have to go back to work now and do adult things, and you’ve got to come here and take care of your own stuff.” 

“But I don’t wanna take care of stuff,” Harry pouted. “I just wanna stay with you.” 

“I know, baby. But sometimes we have to do things we don’t want to do.” Mum patted his head again, but Harry shook his head to get her off. “You know how Gemma always leaves in the morning to go to school, yeah?” 

“Uh-huh,” Harry nodded, wondering why she changed the topic. 

“Well,” mum tucked her long hair behind her ear, crouching down to be on eye-level with Harry. “You want to go to school like Gemma too, right?” 

“Yeah.” Harry smiled. “Or go to work like you.” 

“Yes, honey. You can only do that if you go to preschool first though,” she explained patiently and Harry knew that she had told him that before. 

“Sorry, mummy,” Harry started gnawing on his knuckles and went to continue speaking, but mum took his hand away from his mouth. “I forgot.” 

“That’s okay,” mum said, stroking the hair out of Harry’s face. “So can you do kid stuff whilst I go do adult stuff? And then I’ll meet you here when we’re both done, yeah?” 

“But what if I’m done before you?” Harry wondered, not wanting to wait for his mum too long in case he got hungry or something. 

“You won’t be,” mum promised. “The lovely teachers will make sure you’re taken care of whilst I’m gone and they will give you stuff to do until I’m back.” 

“Okay,” Harry nodded. “Please come back before dinner, okay?” 

“Of course, baby,” mum smiled, standing up and taking Harry’s hand. She led him to the lady from before, whose red painted lips were stretched to a smile as she took his hand. “Bye, Hazza. I’ll see you soon.” Mum gave him a loud kiss on the cheek and Harry did the same, waving his free hand until mum was out the door. 

“Do you want to meet the rest of your group?” the lady asked, when Harry turned away from the door. Harry just shrugged, feeling weird now that mum was gone. “You’re in the yellow group, Harry. Have you ever been to a play before?” 

“Mummy took me and Gemma, my sister – she’s in school right now – we went to Butlins in the summer and Paddington was there!” he told the teacher excitedly. “He was on a ship!” 

“Oh, fantastic!” the teacher nodded. “Have you ever wanted to try and be in a play yourself?” 

“Me?” Harry asked, suddenly imagining himself on stage like Paddington, everybody watching him. 

“Yes, you,” she smiled down at him. “We’re currently preparing a secret show for everybody’s parents,” she whispered. “And everybody gets to play a part in it.” She opened a yellow door for Harry and he knew she was still explaining stuff to him, but there were so many new things to look at and to take in that he couldn’t concentrate on her voice anymore. There were lots of other children in the room, many of them dressed in funny costumes and some of them were playing tag around a cardboard forest while others were sitting down and looking at each other seriously. 

Harry spotted a boy sitting on a big wooden box. He was dressed in all green, with mismatched blue and red socks and he had a huge crown of yellow petals around his head. Harry looked up at the teacher, who had stopped talking, and back to the boy who was swinging his legs and hitting the box with his heels rhythmically. 

“There are costumes in that box over there,” she said. “Maybe the drooping sunflower will help you pick something.” 

Harry nodded and ran over to the box excitedly before he realized the boy looked sad, so he went a bit slower when he got close. Mum had told him once that when people are sad, they want to be alone sometimes. 

“Um,” Harry started, making the boy look up. He had very blue eyes. “You have very blue eyes. Can I sit with you?” 

“Okay,” the boy nodded, sliding along the length of the box to make room for Harry to sit next to him. “I’m Louis.” 

“I’m Harry. I’m new.” 

“I know,” the boy smiled slightly and Harry thought that cheering him up had been quite easy. 

“Why did you look so sad?” 

“I don’t like my part,” the boy pouted. “I wanted to be Superman, but Miss Hall said I have to be the sunflower because there’s no Superman in the play and the stupid sunflower has to say more words and she says I’m good at saying many words.” 

“I think the sunflower sounds great!” Harry enthused, putting his hand on the other boy’s shoulder. 

“Yeah?” 

“Yes! Sunflowers are so nice,” Harry said. “They’re my favourite. And you get to be very important. Like Paddington at Butlins.” 

“I went to Butlins in the summer with my mum and my sister!” Louis clapped his hands excitedly.

“Me too! We should be friends.” 

“Best friends,” Louis nodded. “Forever.” 

“I’m in.” 

——— 🌻 ———

Harry woke up with a crick in his neck, uncomfortably wedged between the cushions of some sofa. All he knew was that it wasn’t his own sofa, it wasn’t soft in the right parts and the spring that usually dug into his side when he woke up after falling asleep in the living room wasn’t there. He didn’t have any visual clues, not yet. His body was still trapped in a state somewhere between being fully awake and drifting off to sleep while his mind was running a mile a minute. It was too warm, even though he didn’t feel the weight of a blanket on top of him, something – or somebody – had their arms wrapped around him and was breathing soft huffs of air into his chest. Harry wondered if maybe he was deeper in the dreamworld than he had previously assessed. 

There was a very deliberate huff of air, more like a sigh, before a raspy voice spoke to him. “Stop,” it said. Harry wondered what he was doing that he could stop… He was lying perfectly still, breathing in sync with the person on top of him. 

“Stop what?” he asked when he couldn’t figure it out. 

“Ugh.” The noise was so familiar to Harry that for a moment he thought for sure that he was dreaming. “Stop thinking, Haz. I’m tryin’a sleep,” Louis grumbled, throwing his leg over Harry’s stomach and cuddling in closer. 

Harry opened his eyes, now fully alert. The first thing he saw was a ceiling painted in a familiar blue. When he moved his head a little and looked down, he saw Louis in his arms. Well, mostly he saw the top of Louis’ head. If he could recognize anybody by the top of their head it would be Louis though. 

“Sorry,” Harry said, now on autopilot, trying to figure out how he got Louis to cuddle him like this. It wasn’t their usual cuddle position, this felt way too much like what Harry wanted, it was too...boyfriend-y. And the whole situation was confusing because they’d never fallen asleep on the couch like _this_. To wake up in this position had to mean that they had fallen asleep in a similar one. There simply wasn’t enough room to move into a different position overnight without falling down onto the carpet. 

“If you’re sorry then why haven’t you stopped?” Louis asked, now shaking his head and moving so he could sleepily look up at Harry. He rubbed a hand over his puffy eyes, barely managing to keep them open. 

“Shhh, I’m trying to figure it out,” Harry whispered, feeling a smile tug at the corner of his mouth as he slowly started to remember how they had ended up here. He was gaining control over his fingers and immediately used them to press Louis closer to him, feeling his ribs under his soft shirt. 

Louis rolled his eyes. “What are you trying to figure out?” he indulged Harry, like he always did. 

“How I ended up here,” Harry murmured, trying his best to memorize the way Louis’ eyes looked in the early morning sunlight. They were brighter through the tiny slits that Louis managed to keep open than they were on full display around midday. Or maybe it was just happiness shining it’s way through to the outside.

“Please don’t say that you suffer from short-term memory loss,” Louis groaned, shifting into a more comfortable angle so he could squint at Harry without breaking his neck. Harry took that as his cue to shift further up and relieve his own neck as well. “I don’t have the energy to ask you out again, Curly. You’ve tired me out.” 

“Have I?” 

“In the second best way possible,” Louis grinned. 

“Only the second best?” Harry wondered if he’d done anything wrong on their date the night before. 

“I’m saving the best one for later,” Louis informed. “I know you’ll be even more of a handful if I ever get you up to my bedroom.” He winked his tired eyes, somehow managing to make the ridiculous gesture look endearing and sexy at the same time. 

“I wonder…” Harry started, stopping when he realized what he was about to say. 

“Spit it out, “ Louis poked his ribs. “I’ll know if you say something different.” 

“I wonder how you manage to make everything you do look sexy,” Harry giggled. 

“Oi,” Louis joined in laughing. “I might get you up to that bedroom quicker than I thought if that’s what you think.” 

“Slow down, sunflower,” Harry grinned, pulling on Louis’ leg until he was splayed out on top of him completely. “We’ve got all the time in the world.” 

——— 🌻 ———

When Louis had said he was planning a surprise for their six-month-a-versary, Harry had expected that they may go to the cinema or have dinner at a fancier restaurant than they would usually go to. Not that he wanted either of those things, but that was what he thought were the things to do. Chocolates, roses, maybe some underage champagne drinking… Definitely not _this!_

“Happy six months, baby,” Louis said, taking his hand and leading him along a small pathway lit with tea lights in different coloured glasses and empty jars. They reached the tattered picnic blanket that had been laid out for them in the garden and Louis motioned for Harry to sit on one of the cushions taken from the sofa in the living room. The candle lights started swimming together in front of Harry’s eyes. His own gift for Louis seemed measly next to what had been prepared for him. But it wasn’t a competition. – Unlike so many things in Harry’s life, he never wanted to make his relationship competitive. But this was too much, too perfect. 

“Are you crying?” Louis asked, suddenly concerned, hands touching over Harry’s shoulders and face as he crouched in front of him. “Have I done something wrong?”

“No!” Harry exclaimed quickly. “It's perfect, Lou.”

“Then why are you crying, Haz?” 

“Because I don’t deserve all this,” Harry whispered. “Or, no,” he shook his head, quickly re-wording before Louis could scold him for being so hard on himself. “Maybe I do, but so do you. And I haven’t prepared the perfect date for you.” 

“Nonsense,” Louis said softly. “You deserve every good thing in the world, Harry. And you don’t have to give me anything at all in return.” 

“I do have something,” Harry smiled. “But it’s just a small gift. I’ll go grab it real quick.” Harry got up before Louis could protest and almost stumbled over some of the candles on his way back in to grab his gift. He knew his way around the Tomlinson house blindly, not bothering to turn on the lights to fish for the little bag in his backpack. 

Louis was sitting with his legs crossed when Harry came back out, and the soft candle light illuminated his face just so. He was beautiful. And Harry loved him. He’d known for a while now that he did, but he hadn’t said it yet. Planned to do it through this gift, actually. He took out the little card with a photo of the two of them on the ferris wheel at the fair a couple months ago and peered down at the neatly written lines on it. 

“It really isn’t much,” he said again, sitting down. He placed the bag on the ground and handed the card over carefully, watching as Louis’ eyes traced the few lines he’d written and he looked up. 

“Says here you want to tell me something?” he asked, voice quiet and serious like it only got during the dark hours of the day, when they were alone. 

“Ye– excuse me,” Harry cleared his throat. “I…I just want you to know that I...I love you, sunflower.” 

“I love you too, Hazza,” Louis smiled, leaning over the gift bag to steal a chaste kiss, sealing their words with their lips. Their lips which had almost had these words slip out so many times by now, and which had said them in so many other ways – tracing collar bones, and pressing soft kisses to the inside of each other’s wrists and sucking dark bruises into velvety skin. “Can I look at my gift now?”

“Sure,” Harry smiled. 

“Oh,” Louis said, lifting the little succulent out of the bag carefully. “It’s a plant,” he observed, looking up at Harry with big eyes. 

“I know you haven’t got the green thumb yet, but succulents are really easy to care for,” Harry explained. “I can help you with it.”

“A succulent,” Louis repeated, sounding the word out and smiling down at the plant. “Are you trying to tell me something?” 

“No? I can take it back if you don’t want it?” 

“Shush, Harold.” Louis shook his head. “I will protect and care for this plant as if my life depends on it.” 

“What did you mean then?” Harry asked, relieved that Louis seemed to like his little present. 

“It’s a succulent... _Suck-you_ -lent.” Louis laughed airily. 

“We’re not giving up sucking for lent, if that’s what you thought,” Harry laughed along. “At least not if it’s up to me.” 

“I’m not on board with that either,” Louis agreed. “I’m naming her Smelly Cat the Suck-you-lent,” he announced, passing his finger over one of its thick leaves. 

“I hope she doesn’t stink,” Harry snickered, humming the tune to “Smelly Cat” from Friends, as he reached over to hold Louis’ hand. “This is the perfect six-month-a-versary, by the way. I thought we might go somewhere, but all I really wanted was to be alone with you. And here we are.” 

“Here we are,” Louis grinned, still looking at Smelly Cat. “I know I just said it, but it bears repeating: I love you, Harry.” 

“And I love you,” Harry replied quickly. “It’s almost addicting to say it, now that it’s out there.” 

“You’re almost addicting now that you’re my boyfriend.” 

“Shut up.” 

“What? It’s true.” 

——— 🌻 ———

“How the fuck did you manage to fill this many boxes of stuff from living in one room of our flat for five years?” Niall asked, dramatically dropping the latest box he’d retrieved from the van onto the kitchen counter. 

“Well, you’ll find that most of the kitchen appliances and things in general use, were actually ours, Nialler,” Harry pointed out. “You’ll have to buy a bunch of stuff if you want to continue living like regular adults.” 

“Eh,” Niall shrugged. “I’m still young enough to live like I’m at Uni, right?” 

“Sure,” Louis nodded. “You’re a right lad, an actual shagger, mate. Totally sick.” 

“You’re wicked cool, bro,” Zayn added, sitting down on the hardwood floor of their still-empty living room and crossing his legs. 

“Fuck off.” Niall laughed, plopping down next to him. 

“Ooh!” Liam said, coming around the corner with three boxes stacked up in front of him, poking his head out from behind them. “Are we making fun of the Irish one?” 

“Always,” Louis assured, taking the top box off and helping Liam put everything down safely. “Were these the last ones?” 

“Yeah,” Liam nodded. “What did Niall do to warrant us making fun of him?” 

“Thinks he’s still young,” Zayn explained, making Liam honk out a laugh. 

“Sure, mate,” he said. “This does actually remind me of us moving in together for Uni though...Everything empty, a million boxes scattered around. Except this time the place is bigger and much nicer and only for the two of you.” He smiled at Harry and Louis, who were hunched over a take-out menu together. 

“If you get sappy, I’m gonna cry,” Harry warned. “Now what do you lot want for tea?” 

It was the next morning when Harry heard Louis scream from the kitchen. He immediately took to the stairs and ran down, trying to dodge boxes left and right. He was clumsy enough in a fully furnished place, no need to risk falling down the stairs when they hadn’t even properly moved into their house yet. 

“What happened, love?” he asked, cautiously approaching Louis, who was bent over the kitchen counter. 

“She’s in shambles,” Louis said, turning to look at Harry with a devastated expression. 

“Who?”

“Smelly Cat.” Louis took a step to the side, showing Harry the broken pieces of a flower pot and soil he’d pulled out of a box. 

“Where is she? Maybe we can fix her up in a new pot?” Harry asked, carefully peering inside the box that his boyfriend had just been unpacking. “Or maybe not…” The succulent was pretty much sliced from side to side, barely hanging together by its roots. 

“I knew I should’ve taken her in my lap, like when we moved in with the boys!” Louis frowned, burying his face in his hands. “I’m so sorry Hazza. I should’ve taken better care of her.” 

“Hey, babe,” Harry reached out to pull Louis into a hug. “It’s okay. Maybe she wasn’t supposed to move with us. She’d been with us for eight years. Maybe we need to plant something new, a new start.” 

“You think so?” Louis asked, looking up with bright eyes. “We have a garden now, we could plant something bigger, don’t you think?” 

“Sunflowers.” 

“An apple tree,” they spoke at the same time, giggling at what the other had said. 

“Let’s do both!” Harry decided. “Imagine how lovely sunflowers would look under the kitchen window. They can grow tall enough so that we could actually see them from here. And an apple tree in the back of the garden.”

“Okay,” Louis nodded. “But we have to put up a plaque that says it was planted in memory of Smelly Cat the Suck-you-lent.” 

“Deal.” 

——— 🌻 ———

Another one. It was like there was a hive somewhere! Harry had already encountered five pregnant women since he’d left to go to his studio for work. And he hadn’t even reached his tube stop yet! Ever since they had moved into their first proper house and finished furnishing and decorating every room save for the spare one, all Harry could think about was making it into a nursery. And seeing pregnant women all over town wasn’t really helping his new obsession. He’d started following mommy bloggers on instagram and reading about the joys of pregnancy even though he physically couldn’t get pregnant. 

It felt like he’d entered some sort of nesting period, having secured Louis long ago and now having had their own little house for a while with both of them in stable jobs...It was inevitable his thoughts went to having children. 

That would be no problem, if Harry didn’t have teenage Louis in his head, repeatedly telling him he’d think about having kids seven times over because taking care of his sisters was such a pain in the arse. Now, of course they had grown and changed their opinions on lots of things since they were kids, but somehow Harry simply couldn’t get over himself to talk to his husband about this one thing. Perhaps it was because he wanted it too much, because he feared what might happen if Louis told him no...Or maybe it was because he was scared of what they would have to go through if Louis ended up saying yes. 

No matter what Harry did that day, and to be frank the days and weeks before that, all he could think about was babies. And of course his assistant just happened to have booked a last-minute baby shooting in place of a cancelled appointment that afternoon. The little boy was gorgeous, dressed in yellow dungarees and smiling brightly the whole time as Harry and his mother arranged different props around him. He had dark skin and curly hair, matted to his head from the beanie that had protected him from the cold autumn air outside, and Harry simply fell in love with him, taking picture after picture. Natalie had to come up to remind him to wrap up multiple times.

He had to take a few minutes in the loo to calm himself after he said goodbye to the little family. He wasn’t usually embarrassed about crying, but this was a new low for him. With a splotchy face and red rimmed eyes, he slapped himself a couple times with both hands and headed back to his desk.

He ducked his head walking by Natalie to get some editing done before he headed back home. There were wedding photos from almost a week ago that he needed to get to, but he couldn’t help it...He just had to go through the pictures he’d taken of little Emmett and his family. 

“They turned out great, didn’t they?” Natalie asked from the doorway a while later. She was wearing her coat already and carrying a mug of tea into the room, which she placed on Harry’s desk. 

“He was a gorgeous boy,” Harry agreed. 

“Don’t stay too late,” Natalie said, knowing she couldn’t stop Harry from doing it once he got in the zone. “Louis is probably waiting for you with dinner already.” 

“Is it that late?” 

“Seven thirty,” she informed, pointing at the top corner of Harry’s screen. 

“I told you, you don’t have to stay longer just because I do,” Harry frowned. “I don’t pay you enough for this.” 

“Shush,” she said. “Just lock up and go home soon. Your husband has barely seen any of you this week.” 

Harry rolled his eyes, turning in his chair and pointing Natalie to the door. She was right, they both knew it. That had to be enough. 

Harry clicked through the baby pictures once more, sorting out the bad ones, and decided to call it a day. There was no way he would get any actual editing done tonight. So he headed home, locking the door to his studio, swiping his Oyster card on autopilot, changing from the tube to the bus in a haze...and watching a little girl excitedly breathe on the window to draw in the condensation. He almost missed his stop, looking at her dreamily, and even after the little jolt of adrenaline that jumping off in time gave him, he still walked home slowly, opened the door with muscle memory and kicked off his shoes lazily. 

“Baby, is that you?” Louis asked from somewhere around the kitchen. Harry just hummed in response, watching his coat fall off the hanger he’d just put it on and staring at it like that would make it go back up. He sighed, slipping it onto the hanger again and walking towards where Louis was. 

“Long day?” 

“Yeah.” Harry gratefully took the glass of red wine being pushed towards him and took a couple sips, watching as Louis stirred a pot of pasta sauce. 

“Go, sit down,” Louis instructed over his shoulder, his mouth tilted slightly downwards at seeing Harry so tense and visibly upset. “The sauce is almost ready, I’ll bring your plate.” 

“Thanks, sun,” Harry forced himself to smile, feeling his hardened facade melt at Louis’ caring gestures. 

“What’s going on, love?” Louis asked gently, after they’d finished their dinner. He placed a hand on top of Harry’s, who turned his own so he could hold it. 

“Nothing,” Harry shook his head. “Just a really odd week.” 

“You’ve got me worried, babe. I’m starting to think you’re not happy with me,” Louis admitted, searching for Harry’s eyes. He traced his foot over Harry’s calf and ankles, trying to get him to come clean. “Have I done something to upset you?” 

“No,” Harry sighed. “Yes.” He took a breath and continued talking just as Louis was about to ask what. “It’s not you now...It’s some stuff you said a long time ago. A very long time.”

“And you’ve been upset with me since?” 

“No,” Harry shook his head again. “No, it’s just come up again for me and I’m not sure if you changed your mind or not and I’m scared that you still feel the same way because I…I really want this.” 

“Tell me what it is, baby...I’ll give you anything you want,” Louis said slowly, now playing with the wedding ring on Harry’s finger. 

“It’s not that easy.” 

“Okay.” There was a long silence, in which Louis waited semi-patiently and Harry tore himself up and down from the seams to finally get the words out. “Have you met someone else?” Louis asked after a while. 

“What?” Harry’s head turned so quickly he almost broke his neck. “Why would you think that?”

“Because you’ve been spending lots of time on your phone and you keep hiding the screen from me when I want to see what you’re smiling about. And you’ve been staying at work later than usual,” Louis pointed out. Harry just laughed, it was a near-hysteric, lunatic laugh, but he couldn’t help it. 

“So it’s not that,” Louis concluded. “What is it, then? What could possibly be worse than that?” 

“I…” Harry took one last giggly breath. “I can’t stop thinking about it, Louis. Ever since we’ve finished the house and we have that glaring empty space in the spare room...I just can’t stop thinking about it. I followed a bunch of Instagram pages and I can barely get any work done because I keep thinking about it, but every single time I have your voice in my head telling me that you don’t want it.” 

“Don’t want what, babe?” Louis’ expression turned more and more confused as Harry kept talking. 

“Remember when we were kids,” Harry started. “And you always had to babysit the little ones? And you always told me that you’d probably never have kids because they’re such a pain in the arse?” Louis just stared at him now, eyes wide and mouth hanging slightly open. “Do you still feel the same way?” 

Louis blinked, closing his mouth slowly. “You’ve been going crazy because I said that I didn’t want kids when I was...what? Seventeen?” 

“Yeah,” Harry blushed, slightly embarrassed at how ridiculous that sounded when put so bluntly. 

“Darling,” Louis breathed, leaning forward and capturing Harry’s lips in a tender kiss. “There is nobody in the world who I think could be a better person to co-parent my kids. I can promise you without a shadow of a doubt, if you’re ready to fill this house with little ones, I’m all in.” 

“You are?” Harry asked, feeling tears well up in his eyes. 

“Yes!” Louis stressed. “If I could impregnate you, I would try right now.” 

“Fuck off,” Harry laughed. “I’ve actually been reading about the joys of pregnancy and I kinda wish I could experience that.” 

“You would look lovely with a baby belly,” Louis assured. “But alas we’re going to have to find a different way.” 

“I can’t believe it was this simple of a conversation,” Harry murmured into his husband’s shoulder a few glasses of wine later. They were swaying in place in the kitchen, listening to Elton John, after having made chocolate mug cakes to celebrate their decision. 

“Huh?” Louis’ hands were wandering around Harry’s back, tracing his shoulders, bumping over his ribs and landing on his hips. 

“I can’t believe this has been eating at me for weeks and all it took to resolve it was me telling you,” Harry sighed, turning his head to kiss at Louis’ neck. 

“That’s usually all it takes,” Louis teased. “I’ve been trying to get that into your stubborn Aquarius head for twenty-five years, love.” 

“Shut up,” Harry grinned, biting at the next best bit of skin he could reach. “I’m glad you know when to ask,” he admitted. 

“I’ve loved you long enough to know,” Louis whispered back. 

Harry took a step back when the song changed, Louis following seamlessly. “It’s a little bit funny, this feelin’ inside,” he sang dramatically. 

“I'm not one of those who can easily hide,” Louis joined in, taking Harry’s hands and leading him to spin under his arm like they had done during their wedding dance. It was unbelievable that they still knew the choreography. Harry could see himself dancing to this song with Louis when they were old and grey, barely able to walk to the kitchen, but ready to dance this one dance even with their mobility scooters in the way. This was all he needed, and if he could have some little ones dancing around his feet with them soon, that would just paint the picture perfect. 

——— 🌻 ———

Sundays had always been Harry’s favourite. Even back when he had to go work on Mondays, he always just enjoyed the peacefulness they provided. The long mornings in bed with Louis, the lazy afternoons spent reading or watching telly, helping Gabriel and Sophie out with the homework assignments they always left to the last minute...Sundays were family days. They were back when it was just the two of them, then three, then four and even now that there were soon to be eight of them. 

Harry couldn’t help but dance around the kitchen as he made coffee and tea and pressed orange juice for the little one. His hip wasn’t in the best condition anymore and he thanked God for the day Soph got him an electric orange press for Christmas, but he was dancing as best as he could and humming along to the dancehall playlist Louis had put together a few days ago. 

“Can’t wait to see the little one either, can you?” Louis asked, standing in the doorway. He was cuddled inside one of Harry’s knit jumpers and Harry knew that it was weird to think an old man such as himself or his husband looked ravishing, but he really did! 

“No,” Harry smiled. “And Carrie’s pregnant again! Do you think we’ll be able to feel the baby kick this time?” 

“Dunno, darling,” Louis smiled, helping to set out everything they needed for their family brunch. “Feels weird to be a grandparent to one, don’t know how I’ll feel about two.” 

“Shush,” Harry grinned, checking Louis with his good hip clumsily. “I know you love it.” 

“I only love you,” Louis replied with a corny grin, his blue eyes glinting. Harry thought that with the colour of his hair fading more and more, they looked even brighter than before. 

“Have I told you you look fantastic yet today, sun?” Harry asked, placing a few eggs in a pot of boiling water carefully. “I wonder where you got that jumper.” 

“Stole it from me husband about ten years ago, I think,” Louis admitted. “Don’t tell him.” 

“My lips are sealed.” 

So they danced around each other in the kitchen, preparing things with practised ease, knowing that if they set everything out on the counter, the kids would insist on carrying it outside to the porch table. In fact, they danced around each other so much that they ended up forgetting all about the eggs. They were lost in their own little world, singing along to Turn Me On by Kevin Lyttle and dancing and giggling until they heard the shutter sound of an iPhone camera go off. 

“This one’s for the family album,” Sophie said, walking in. She was quickly followed by her girlfriend May. Her brother Gabriel entered behind them, his girlfriend following with little Alex stumbling along, holding onto his mother’s leg for support. 

“Look at him, Lou,” Harry said, crouching down with cracking bones so his grandson could walk over to him. “He’s walking all by himself!” 

“That he is,” Louis smiled. “What a talented chap. Might get him to run and play footie with me in a year or two...Since I never managed to get his dad into it.” 

“Heey,” Sophie said, sounding so much like Harry himself that he couldn’t help but smile. “I played a few seasons when I was a kid!” 

“Sorry to break it to you, love, but you were about as uncoordinated as your father,” Louis teased, making everyone laugh. 

“Alright then,” Gabriel announced. “Get your butts outside and let us take care of the rest of brunch.” 

“C’mon love,” Louis said, gently helping Harry stand back up. They took one hand of Alex’ each and walked outside with him. 

“Oooh,” Alex cooed, sitting in Louis’ lap and pointing at the sunflowers under the kitchen window. “Yes,” he said, nodding enthusiastically. 

“You like them?” Louis asked. “Your grand-dada planted those for me.” 

“I did,” Harry said proudly. “Sixty-eight years old and still planting sunflowers for you.” 

“And you’ll do it again at sixty-nine,” Louis grinned, watching as Alex reached for the tea spoon that May had just placed in front of Harry. 

“I will,” Harry promised. “By the looks of it, this might be one of our last brunches outside for the year. The sunflowers are starting to dry, they’ll be ready for harvest soon.”

“Did you just call dad dry?” Sophie asked, sitting down next to Harry with a heavy sigh, relishing in the entire family’s giggles around her. 

“Never,” Harry clutched his metaphorical pearls. “Your father is as juicy as ever.” 

“Aaand that’s enough out of the two of you,” Gabriel laughed. 

“Do you think Alex will say things like that to us when we’re their age?” Carrie asked with a smile. 

“I don’t think we’re as disgusting as they are, darling.” 

“Yeah,” Louis nodded. “Get on our level.” 

“We’ve always encouraged them to reach for the stars,” Harry whispered, leaning over to Louis. “But that truly is an unrealistic goal to set for them.” They snickered privately for a moment before sharing a chaste kiss and digging into their meal. 

It was truly a perfect Sunday morning, Harry thought, as he stole another glance at their sunflowers. He could already feel his knees aching from planting next year’s seeds, but he would never have it any other way. 

**Author's Note:**

> If you liked this, I would appreciate kudos and comments! xx  
> Reblog the tumblr post [here](https://evilovesyou.tumblr.com/post/630885721780240384/planting-seeds-of-love-by-4ureyesonly28-6k-one). <3


End file.
